The impact of futures trading on the underlying asset volatility, and its characteristics, is still debated both in the economic literature and among practitioners. The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of the introduction of stock index futures on the volatility of the Italian Stock...

The paper compares the efficiency of the European banking systems in view of the constitution of the European Monetary Union. Since competition among banks will increase, it is important to identify the most efficient banking system able to play a role in that market. A parametric approach is...

A methodology to measure administrative burdens, based on the Dutch Standard Cost Model (SCM), has been applied in a large number of European countries, coupled in most cases with the commitment to a reduction target. This paper compares the application of the method in different national...

The design of wholesale electricity markets in the transition towards liberalization presents significant differences from country to country. Some spot markets have imposed the concentration of transactions to ensure market liquidity. Other markets are based on bilateral trading. The debate...

We analyse the deleveraging process with reference to a sample of European banks from December 2011 to June 2013 and find that the leverage ratio (measured as assets to equity) has declined on average from 28.6 to 25.0. Its standard deviation fell from 8.2 to 6.5. About 2/3 of the deleveraging...

This paper presents stylized facts of the segmentation of the Euro Area (EA) banking system and investigates cross-border banking dynamics. Results show that the determinants of cross-border banking change substantially over-time: (i) in the pre-crisis period of financial integration the...

This paper investigates bank structural funding vis-à-vis bank failures. An empirical analysis is conducted on the defaults of commercial banks occurred in the United States between 2007 and 2009. The results highlight that structural funding position indeed plays a significant role in...